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Officials: Cartel leader 'El Chato' killed

A reputed Juárez drug cartel regional leader suspected in the deaths of three young members of the PRI political party was one of four men found slain last week in west Chihuahua, officials said this week.

Iván Iturralde Olivas, alias "El Chato," 29, was allegedly the "jefe de la plaza," or a territorial leader, for La Linea crime organization in the mountains near the town of Guerrero, the Chihuahua attorney general's office said in a news release.

Authorities said Iturralde was identified as one of four dead men found Jan. 17 in the bed of a pickup abandoned on the Cuauhtémoc-La Junta road near Guerrero. The pickup had been reported stolen in El Paso, officials added.

The attorney general's office said Iturralde was under investigation in homicides, extortion, abductions and disappearances in the mountain region.

Iturralde was suspected of taking part in the abduction and killing of three young members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, whose bodies were found in a burned car Nov. 29 near Guerrero, the attorney general's office said. The slain men were Jesus Francisco Ramos, 26, the president of a PRI youth group; Erick Reyes Carreon, 27; and Luis Fernando Gonzalez Avitia, 25.

Officials said that witnesses told investigators that Iturralde was allegedly known to travel with armed men aboard stolen vehicles. The state attorney general's office alleged that Iturralde operated in the towns of Matachí, Temósachi, Guerrero, La Junta and San Juanito.

Iturralde and his men were also suspected in the disappearance of three other young men in May 2012 and two other men in November 2013, officials said.

The Norte newspaper reported that Iturralde's death might have been ordered by cartel members upset that the killing of the political activists had heated up the region.